North Korea fears grow as country makes progress in missile program

Posted: 6:14 PM, Jun 22, 2016
Updated: 2016-06-22 19:14:51-04
North Korea fears grow as country makes progress in missile program

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea took a significant step Wednesday in the development of a powerful ballistic missile intended to reach U.S. bases in the Pacific, launching one of the weapons about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) high after five failed attempts in recent months.

The North's suspected Musudan tests worry Washington and its allies, Tokyo and Seoul, because the missile's potential 3,500-kilometer (2,180-mile) range puts much of Asia and the Pacific, including U.S. military bases there, within reach.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said the most recent launch demonstrated a "certain level of capability," and could lead to a further strengthening of North Korea's ballistic missile capabilities that can cover Japanese territory.

Official news agency KCNA quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as saying the launch now gives the north the "sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theatre."


A statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said a suspected first Musudan launch from the east coast city of Wonsan failed. It didn't elaborate, but Japan's Defense Ministry said the missile fragmented and pieces fell into waters off the Korean Peninsula's east coast.

Later on Wednesday, the South's military said the North fired another suspected Musudan, which flew about 400 kilometers (245 miles). Seoul didn't immediately classify this launch as either a success or failure.


"We have to see it as a success," Lee Choon Geun, an analyst at South Korea's state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute, said of the second launch. "No other (previous) missiles fired by North Korea have ever flown that high."

The U.S. Strategic Command in Hawaii said its systems detected and tracked two suspected North Korean Musudan missiles that fell into the Sea of Japan. They didn't pose a threat to North America, it said.






"The impact of these provocations will be to only strengthen the resolve of the international community that has such serious concerns with North Korea's behavior," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "The United States will do what we have done in the past, which is work with the international community, particularly our allies in South Korea and Japan."

South Korea's Unification Ministry called the launches a "clear provocation." In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was also critical, saying, "We find it utterly unforgivable."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Beijing didn't consider the missile launches to be an act of defiance against China, North Korea's long-time ally with whom its relations have cooled substantially in recent years.

"To say such an act taken by North Korea shows disapproval against China is reading too much into it," Hua said at a press briefing.


